SWITCHBLADE TO THE RESCUE

     by Bernard Levine (c)1993 - published in the OKCA Newsletter



The Switchblade Menace

     In 1958, after a five-year campaign by politicians and the 
media, Congress enacted a ban on interstate commerce in 
switchblade knives, which President Eisenhower signed into law. 
Even the backers of this ban admitted that it would accomplish 
little in the way of curtailing crime. They acknowledged that it 
was largely symbolic, but empty symbolism wins more votes than 
genuine reform. Moreover, it was politically safer for our 
representatives to criminalize the actions of a few small 
manufacturers and mail-order dealers, than to punish the juvenile 
delinquency of the children of some of their constituents. 
     The real motivation of some proponents of the ban is 
revealed in the Congressional Record. For a few, such as U.S. 
Senator Frederick G. Payne of Maine, the motive was ethnic 
prejudice. During a committee hearing Payne asked a witness, 
"Isn't it true that this type of knife, switchblade knife, in its 
several different forms, was developed, actually, abroad, and was 
developed by the so-called scum, if you want to call it, or the 
group who are always involved in crime?" 
     Not just ethnic anxiety, but sexual anxiety, too, seemed to 
motivate some proponents of the ban. Representative Sidney R. 
Yates of Illinois proclaimed, "Vicious fantasies of omnipotence, 
idolatry... barbaric and sadistic atrocities, and monstrous 
violations of accepted values spring from the cult of the weapon, 
and the switchblade knife is included in this. Minus switchblade 
knives and the distorted feeling of power they beget--power that 
is swaggering, reckless, and itching to express itself in 
violence--our delinquent adolescents would be shorn of one of 
their most potent means of incitement to crime." 
     Another outspoken advocate of banning switchblades at that 
time (and also of banning firearms and ammunition) was New York 
State Senator Frank J. Pino from Brooklyn. In his testimony 
before Congress Mr. Pino stated, "these knives are... inherently 
dangerous, they have only one purpose. They are just deadly. They 
are lethal weapons, and they are suited for crime, that is all 
they are suited for." 
     The most persistent advocate of a switchblade ban was 
Representative James J. Delaney of New York City, author of the 
first federal anti-switchblade bill back in 1954. On April 17, 
1958, he stated, "Every day our newspapers report numerous 
muggings and attacks, most of them involving knives. Can we sit 
by complacently and ignore the bloodshed in our streets? Doing 
away with switchblades will not be a cure-all for the crime wave 
sweeping the nation, but it will remove one of the favorite 
weapons of our juvenile and criminal element... it was not until 
about 1949 or 1950 that these things came into common usage. In 
the gathering of juvenile gangs and clans, nearly every one of 
them has a switchblade. It is a ritual with some of them to carry 
switchblades. It is not only the boys, but I was surprised to 
find that a great number of the girls carry them also." 


The Other Side of the Story

     Senator Payne and Congressman Delaney had made up their 
minds, so nothing would have been gained by confusing them with 
the facts. Switchblade knives came into common use in the United 
States, not around 1950 as Delaney stated, but around 1850. The 
first ones sold here did indeed come from abroad, as Payne 
complained; they came from Sheffield. By the 1890s, thanks to the 
inventive genius of Americans such as George Korn and George 
Schrade, American made switchblades had become popular worldwide. 
     In 1904 George Schrade and two of his brothers, Louis and 
William, founded the Schrade Cutlery Company of Walden, New York. 
For the next four decades Schrade Cut. Co. was the leading 
American manufacturer of switchblade jack knives and pen knives, 
which the firm advertised thus: 

                     Operated With One Hand.
                  No Breaking of Finger Nails.
                  Will Not Open in Your Pocket.
           Will Not Close on the Fingers When in Use.
     The Schrade Safety Push Button Knife, of which we are the 
  exclusive manufacturers, is rapidly becoming the leading knife 
  on the market because of its many advantages over the ordinary 
  pocket knife. Being easily operated with one hand it is far 
  more convenient than the old style pocket knife which 
  necessitates the use of both hands to open and frequently 
  results in broken finger nails... This novel knife is 
  especially suitable for a gift or souvenir, as it is something 
  out of the ordinary, very useful, and when furnished with one 
  of our attractive handles makes an ideal gift. 

                                 *

     Senator Payne, Congressman Yates, Senator Pino, and 
Congressman Delaney were all living proof that the main reason we 
have foolish laws is that we elect foolish lawmakers--foolish and 
downright ignorant. As further demonstration of their folly and 
ignorance, here is an article that appeared in the June 1917 
issue of The American Cutler magazine, published about a month 
after the United States had entered the First World War. The 
American Cutler was the monthly trade publication of the U. S. 
cutlery industry. Sweet, Orr & Co. was a mercantile firm. 

                                *



   Ship Torpedoed; Schrade Push Button Knife Saves Many Lives

     The following very interesting letter was received by Mr. 
  Thomas E. Goring, Vice-President of Sweet, Orr & Co., Inc., a 
  copy of which was sent to the Schrade Cutlery Company of 
  Walden, New York, the manufacturers of the knife in question. 

                                 *

                        The Manor (County of London War Hospital)
                              Epsom, Surrey, England, 
                                   March 19, 1917

  Mr. Thomas E. Goring
    Care of Sweet, Orr & Co., Inc.
      15 Union Square
        New York, N. Y.

  My dear Mr. Goring:

     I want to tell you how you saved the lives of twenty-eight 
  people. You remember presenting a knife to me (Dr. B. E. Hawke) 
  while traveling with you from New Orleans. Well, I was on the 
  "Laconia" that was torpedoed and sunk three hundred miles off 
  the West Coast of Ireland. In lowering our lifeboat into the 
  water, we got about two-thirds of the way down the ship side 
  when the rope attached to the front ends on the boat got fast 
  in the pulley, and as the stern was gradually going down, we 
  were in a fair way to be dumped into the sea when some one 
  called for a knife and I happened to have the only one in the 
  boat and it was the Schrade safety push button knife that you 
  gave me, so I hastily opened it and cut the rope and let us 
  loose and down we went to safety. I certainly treasure the 
  knife and will try and not lose it, and when I get back to 
  America, will make you a present of it; that is, if you would 
  care to have it. This was at 9:30 P. M. We were in the boat all 
  night and picked up by a warship the next morning, wet and cold 
  and numbed and shivering, but in a week I got pulled together 
  and am now nicely and completely settled at this hospital...
                                   B. E. HAWKE, M. D.

                                 *

     Mr. Goring says, "When the doctor returns the knife, I will 
  have the letter and knife properly framed and present it to the 
  Grinnell Library of Wappingers Falls, N. Y., to add to their 
  collection of curios." 
     The Schrade Cutlery Company feel considerable pride in this 
  interesting story in which one of their safety push button 
  knives played such an important part and feel that every one in 
  everyday life will find their safety push button knives for 
  ordinary use equally as convenient and necessary as Dr. Hawke 
  found it when about to be dumped into the sea, and feel that 
  the full merit of the knife was demonstrated in this instance. 

                                *

     The very next issue of The American Cutler (July 1917) 
carried an honest-to-goodness poem in praise of the Schrade 
safety switchblade. 


         An Encomium of the Drop-Knife.

  No knife is so slick, 
  It is quick on its trick 
  And a joy that will last you through life. 
  There is none 'neath the sun
  Just like it, not one, 
  It's the Schrade Safety Push-Button Knife. 

  If the button is pressed 
  The blade does the rest, 
  Opens out like a thing all alive; 
  You break no thumb nail 
  In your efforts--that fail--
  If you're owning this Push-Button Knife. 

  It's the handiest yet, 
  It is everyone's pet,
  And with all good knife merits it's rife. 
  Its blades are rare steel, 
  And really ideal 
  Is this notable Push-Button Knife. 

  It's the very quick pick 
  Of club, class, and clique, 
  Its equal they cannot contrive; 
  It's a true treasure trove, 
  And a thing you will love 
  Is this wonderful Push-Button Knife. 

                    A. W. BELLAW, DeGroff, Ohio

                           *     *     *

Note: In Oregon it is legal to make, sell, buy, or own 
switchblade knives. However, it is illegal here to carry a 
switchblade knife, a gravity knife, a dagger, or a dirk concealed 
on one's person, or for a convicted felon to possess a 
switchblade or gravity knife. Thirty states have banned 
possession of switchblade knives. Under federal law it is illegal 
to mail, carry, or ship a switchblade or gravity knife across 
state lines, as well as illegal to mail any item listing or 
advertising switchblade knives for sale. 


[Parts of this story story appeared in Knife World, August 1990, 
and in the National Knife Magazine, February 1993]

http://www.knife-expert.com/